A Vision for the City

Recently I attended a conference is Syracuse that was organized by a dear Sister in the Lord Rose Prunoske. She brought together a group of Christians from the general area to hear some extremely "gifted" men of God.

These servants of Christ were impressive as they ministered in the "gifts" of the Spirit and in the Word of God. My heart was profoundly stirred. During one of the morning sessions the Holy Spirit came upon me and allow me not only to hear the "voice" of the Father, but to "see" what God was doing and about to do in Syracuse. I saw what appeared to be beams of light that were shooting out of the clouds over the region of Syracuse. The beams of light were like laser beams that "lasted". First there were a few across the region. They would flash as they appeared and then they would sustain themselves. More and more beams of light would flash and continue burning. Again and again more would flash until the beams of light were many and all over the region. The whole area was being "visited" by the Glory of God and the "visitation" was growing and being sustained by hungry believers who were "yielding" to the Holy Spirit.

We began the services at 10:00 a.m. in the mornings and there was no effort to hurry things along. The morning service would continue even into lunch time. The next service would begin at 2:00 p.m. and continue until it was over. In the evenings again there was no rush. We did not worry about time, we just soaked in the Glory of God and allow the Holy Spirit to take us where He wanted to take us. There were some dramatic healings and many of them.

I just soaked it all in. I began to see several things. It would be very difficult for a local church to try to sustain such a move of God were it to come to the city and continue. The multiple services, the length of the services and with the meeting going on day after day would require multiple worship teams, usher teams, technical people to run the sound system in different time slots, and a team made up of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to train the people for the works of ministry and allow everyone on the team time off to attain to their marriages, families and churches.

The church in our cities need the five-fold ministry to come together to build the body of Christ so that the people in our local congregations can do the work of the ministry in the market place. I really feel that this type of movement could begin in a local church but it could not continue in any local church without a sustained community effort by the larger body of Christ in the city.

Marriages and families should not be neglected by those who attend the meetings. I believe that God would be pleased if we all spent days at a time soaking in this glorious visitation of the Holy Spirit in a rich environment of the five-fold ministry. But, not to the end that we neglect our marriages, families or businesses and careers. What I "see" is we all need this type of "visitation" produced by the five-fold ministry. But, it would serve the broader community on a demand type basis or a rotation approach, which provides constant "visitation" with each individual making a commitment according to a Holy Spirit directed duration.

Would it not be wonderful to provide a continuous five-fold ministry visitation of the Holy Spirit in our cities that is pure and unadulterated with carnality? Imagine being able to go any day, afternoon or evening to a center place where the worship and ministry never stops. I am talking about mature Spirit-directed ministry by Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastor, and Teacher. Men and Women under the direction of the Holy Spirit moving in the gifts of the Holy Spirit as He directs. Oh Father, deliver us from trying to take any honor from You.

What I "see" is a five-fold ministry that teach the Body of believers by moving in the "gifts" of the Spirit themselves. I see the team functioning as a team. Like a relay team, first one shares and then another. Would it not be a "beautiful" thing to see shared "ministry" where the person with the "word" from God shares fully what God lays upon the heart and then stops and another person begins to share as the Holy Spirit leads them. Perhaps even a tag team approach. We would of course have to learn how to do this under the direction of the Holy Spirit, but what a glorious thing it would be if we just let the Holy Spirit take us into what ever He chooses. Now, there would be a need for discernment and spiritual judgment to keep things on track and to keep out of the picture those who are full of themselves and full of "religious" spirits. Any time there is a valid move of God there needs to be great freedom in the Holy Spirit, but at the same time a careful attendance to the evil one's attempt to gain attention and frustrate the movement of the Holy Spirit.

To participant in such a visitation of God the leaders and the believers should be certain to walk in purity and integrity before both God and men. Many leaders and believers have fallen under the power of their sin-natures or the evil one and have become spoilers of revival, renewal or a visitation of God.

There is so much more that I want to write on this subject. I think it would be good to close down the meetings entirely upon Sunday mornings and insist that all the local believers and visitors attend the local congregations that support the work. I think that notices should be posted that the tithe should be given to the local church and only offerings are to be given during the meetings. These offerings should be used to offset the expenses of the "gatherings" and to support the five-fold ministry and pastors of the local churches who participate.

This is what I "see" what do you see?